Desolate Era (Book 28 - Book 30)

“Every single chaos cycle, a large number of devils will charge forth from the Abyss of Fiends under the guidance of a fiendlord and sweep through this world. When this happens, all of the experts within this world must join together if they wish to withstand the assault. But of course, sometimes we will fail. In any case, the devils will have to retreat back into the Abyss of Fiends after a brief period of time.”


Ning frowned. “fiendlord?”

Know thy enemy and know thyself; only then would you be the victor in every battle. The reason why Ning had come to interrogate this local expert was because he wanted to learn more regarding this Abyss of Fiends. This was at trial-world established by three Eternal Emperors, after all, and one of them was on the same level of power as the almighty Hegemon himself. There was no such thing as being too cautious.

“According to the legends, the first twelve layers of the Abyss only hold a single fiendlord. Starting from the thirteenth level, each level shall have many fiendlords within them. The fiendlords are extremely powerful, and it is easy for them to kill us.” The golden-robed elder sighed. “As for what the final twelve levels hold… that is a mystery to us all.”

Ning nodded slowly, as if enlightened.

……

This world was merely a trillion kilometers in size. After some detailed questioning, Ning came to understand that the strongest experts here were merely are the World level. Those who reached the Daolord level would all vanish without a trace.

“The Abyss of Fiends?” Ning stood at the peak of a mountain, staring off into the distance towards the great black abyss, a circular hole in the earth that was a million kilometers in circumference. The abyss was so deep that there was no way one could see to its bottom. The only thing one could sense was that terrifyingly baleful aura emanating from it.

“So this is the trial which the grandmasters left behind?” Ning revealed a hint of a smile. These so-called ‘trials’ were actually processes of elimination. Major powers were all incredibly proud figures, and thus ordinary cultivators were not qualified to even attempt to peek at their treasures. It must be understood that any of the treasures left behind by Hegemon-level figures would assuredly be valuable beyond price.

“I wonder if I, Ji Ning, will be found worth by the three grandmasters.” Ning transformed into as treak of sword-light, then flew out while using a hint of the Blood Drop sword-intent. The streak of sword-light instantly charged into the Abyss of Fiends.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

A black mist wafted outwards from this place, carrying strange spatial ripples with it.

“Eh?” Ning soon arrived at the first level of the Abyss of Fiends. This first level was a world of volcanos, lava, and endless amounts of blazing light.

Ning swept out with his godsense but wasn’t too worried. The first twelve levels only held a single fiendlord, after all. Even the local World-level cultivators would often come adventuring through the first level.

“This leve is roughly ten billion kilometers in size and constitutes a world unto itself. It has more than three hundred devils, each of which has the aura of an ordinary World-level cultivator.” Ning’s hands tightened around his sword, Violetjewel.

“Someone has come from the World Above!”

“He actually dares to intrude into our world, the Abyss of Fiends?!”

“Kill him!”

When Ning stretched out with his godsense it instantly attracted the attention of some of the nearby devils, causing them to charge towards Ning. These fiends all belonged to the same race, a race with grayish-black skin, veiny wings, and a pair of sharp claws that glimmered with metallic light. These devils were able to easily surpass the limits of the Heavenly Daos when flying, and the invisible aura of power surrounding them was quite great.

Ning swept the area with his gaze… and his gaze transformed into swords!

A series of sword-intents burst forth, transforming into an enormous Yin-Yang Sword Domain that was like a terrifying grindstone that easily ground away all of the attacking devils. The attacking devils were utterly terrified – this foe was actually able to kill them with just his sword-intent alone?!

Ning, however, was quite calm. These little devils weren’t even worthy of him using his Dao lightning or Dao water. Using his intent alone to form the Yin-Yang Sword Domain resulted in a domain which had perhaps only 10%-20% of his full power, but it was enough to effortlessly wipe through these opponents.

Rumble…

The terrifying sword-intent washed out wantonly, easily annihilating all invading devils.

Ning continued to fly downwards, passing through the ground and another layer of black mist before arriving at the second level of the Abyss of Fiends.





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Book 28, Chapter 28 - Death Approaches


Ji Ning charged through one level after another, easily battling his way all the way down to the twelfth level. Thus far, he hadn’t even needed to draw his sword; his Yin-Yang Sword Domain was enough to sweep through all obstacles.

“Level twelve.”

Ning stood atop a hill and was staring off into the distance.

The twelfth level of the Abyss of Fiends was a world of dark-red earth and dark-red mountains. Even the rivers were dark-red in color. The only thing that was different was a pitch-black whirlpool that could be seen off in the distance. The whirlpool was enormous in size and emanated powerful spatial ripples.

“Is that a teleportation tunnel?” Ning recognized it right away. This was a spatial corridor that would allow the user to safely pass through it and leave this place. However… was he supposed to leave before he even encountered any fortunes or opportunities? Ning certainly wasn’t willing to resign himself to such a thing!

Ning knew very well that someone making it to the twelfth level meant nothing to those three grandmasters of the sword. Forget about Ji Ning; even some of the local World-level cultivators were able to make it to this level! As Ning had travelled downwards, he had discovered quite a few magic treasures left behind by the locals who had challenged this place.

“This is the twelfth level. There should be a fiendlord here. Supposedly, large groups of fiendlords roam the deeper depths of the Abyss of Fiends, and every chaos cycle there will be a fiendlord who will lead the devils out of the Abyss to assault the world outside. However… since they are often defeated, I imagine that the so-called fiendlords aren’t that powerful either.” Ning revealed a smile. He really didn’t hold these fiendlords in any regard. He spread out his godsense once more, using it to instantly encompass the entire twelfth level.

Once his godsense spread out, it immediately startled awake the devils on this level as well as an extremely powerful devil… the so-called fiendlord.

A short period of time passed, enough for a kettle of tea to be boiled.

Boom! Ning’s sword stabbed through the dark-red skin of a gigantic devil. Previously, the devils all had grayish-black skins. This particular devil was much larger and had dark-red skin; it was a fiendlord!

“Graa… graa…” The fiendlord’s throat had been pierced through, but it continued to make those strange yelping sounds as it swiped its sharp claws towards Ning, seeking to dismember him.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

The divine sword in Ning’s hands sliced out out in a series of bizarre arcs of sword-light, splitting the fiendlord with three strikes. However, the fiendlord’s body then quickly reformed and healed and it let out a furious roar as it once more charged towards Ning. Every single punch and kick it unleashed was filled with incredible power that caused its own body to tremble. Clearly, it didn’t have extremely fine, minute control over its power.

Ning, for example, was capable of easily crushing and annihilating the power contained within entire chaosworlds. He was completely surrounded by his sword-light, and none of the power was able to escape at all.

Slash! Sword-light flashed out, resulting in the fiendlord being bisected at the waist once more.